The adidas we know and love was founded on August 18, 1949 by Adolf Dassler, but his friends called him Adi. It was also when adidas got their famous three stripes, from a very unlikely source, read more about that in our “11 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About adidas” blog.

The first logo for the “Adi Dassler adidas Sportschuhfabrik”, was based around the running spike that adi was known for, while the iconic font that lasts to this day also made an appearance.

With so much heritage surrounding the German brand, adidas keep producing timeless classics, not only with their clothing and shoes, but their logo’s too. The brand has two main logos’ today, that split their Originals and performance lines, we take a look at their history.

The Trefoil

The iconic logo was first brought to us in 1972 and made its debut at the Olympic games in Munich. With their push into street and leisurewear, adidas believed they needed a fresh logo and thus the Trefoil was born. Featured today on items such as the California t-shirt, Pharrell Williams Tennis Hu trainers and Gazelle’s, the trefoil is a design classic. It remains as important to the lifestyle and street culture as ever.

Originally the Trefoil was created to represent all the products adidas, today, the Trefoil takes pride of place on the ever-popular Orignals range of clothing and trainers. However, as adidas say, “Times may change, but trefoiled quality will always remain.”

Performance logo

The other adidas logo you may know is the “performance” logo, more commonly associated with their sports range, if you’ve got an adidas football kit then it probably has this. In 1997 adidas needed a new identity for their corporate outlook and the new logo was born. Originally created for the launch of the adidas EQT range in the early 90s by Peter Moore, they changed colours from green to black with a couple of little tweaks and the rest as they say, is history.

In recent years adidas have staked their claim as the World’s top sportwear brand, with the huge success of their Boost range of trainers as well as their Originals line becoming a street style staple. The brand with the three stripes have the heritage to be a top selling brand and the innovation to stay there.